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With two days of incessant rain forcing the cancellation of round 4 of the NEHL at Thornley Farm (to a generalised sigh of relief one imagines across much of the North East running community), elsewhere Morpeth Harriers were involved in some seriously fast competitive action.
The annual Armagh 5k – motto ‘Go Fast or Go Home’ – once again took over the streets of the Northern Irish town on Thursday evening, attracting many elite level runners from right across the UK and Europe. With snow having fallen during the day, this year’s race was held in some pretty cold and unfavourable conditions – although with some 17 sub-14 minute times and no less than 130 sub-15 runs you might not think so. At the sharp end of the field, James Young had an excellent run and was only beaten in the sprint to the line by Finland’s Topi Raitanen, the Finn clocking 13:49 to Young’s 13:50 with Sheffield and Dearne’s Alfie Manthorpe in 3rd. Six other Morpeth Harriers recorded sub-15 minute times, with Carl Avery next back, 58th in 14:28, one second and one place ahead of colleague Lawrence McCourt. Finn Brodie was 83rd in 14:39, Will Cork 111th in 14:49, Phil Winkler 118th in 14:54 and George Lowry 127th in 14:55, while Alistair Douglas (150th in 15:06) and Peter Smallcombe (153rd in 15:08) narrowly missed the 15-minute mark. The previous night saw two club members involved in the Ayo Falola Dream Mile at Lee Valley Indoor Athletics Centre just outside London. A rare opportunity to race over the distance indoors, the race was won by Joseph Tuffin in 3 minutes 59.24 seconds, with Morpeth’s Rory Leonard chasing him every inch of the way round the boards to clock his very first sub 4 minute mile in 3:59.55 in 3rd. It was an also a great return to form for Cameron Boyek, missing out on the 4 minute mark by the merest of 0.60 of a second when finishing 4th. Sunday saw Rory back in action, this time travelling to Monaco for an Elite 5k race round the streets of the Principality. Clearly in fantastic shape, this time he clocked 13:37.31 when finishing in 4th place, with the race won in 13:22 by Frenchman Yann Schrub. The time puts him in equal 7th on the UK all time list for the distance on the roads, and with the same time as legendary Elswick Harrier and Olympic Silver medallist over 10000m Mike McLeod. Something of an understatement, Rory would later note, ‘Good week ticked off…just getting started.’ Comments are closed.
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July 2025
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